Promoting Your Day Care Equals More Customers

Fill your day care with children of contented parents by getting an edge on your competition thus ensuring your business stands out from the dull crowd. In order to achieve this desirable end you can take some small, cheap, easy to implement steps that will guarantee results. You need to imbue your business with unique traits that will ensure your success so a little investment of time, thought and some money is essential.

So, a prospective parent arrives at your door brim full of cynicism and thoughts filled with negative day care tales - how do you get across to them that you are the real deal, that you provide quality child care? You should have various methods of ensuring the wellbeing of the children in your care, the primary one being a set of effective policies which will indicate to parents the ethos of your service, your professional and consistent approach to quality care. Your policies are clear guidelines as to exactly how your business is run and should outline every procedure for every eventuality.

Accountability and consistency are key and these should be evident in your clear, concise policies which should, in turn, paint a picture of the definitive understandings, guidelines and expectations inherent in your daily operations. It is vital that you meet all legislative requirements and your policies should reflect current best practice indicating that you are on top of your business and constantly striving for perfection.

Gaining a third party accreditation is a great way to differentiate your day care from the herd. Potential parents love to see evidence of recognition from respected, related organizations. You will need to pay an annual joining fee and undergo an assessment by one of their inspectors (but you won't have anything to worry about because you're already doing everything right anyway!). Then you roll out all your stationary and brochures and have your accreditations emblazoned across absolutely everything.

These organizations can also provide tremendous support to day care owners in the form of information, training, publications, workshops and conferences. Accreditation can be acquired from some of the following places:

National Association for Family Childcare - www.nafcc.org
Canadian Childcare Federation - www.cccf-fcsge.ca/home_en.html
National Association for Education of Young Children - www.naeyc.org
National After school Association - www.naaweb.org
Council on Accreditation - www.coanet.org

Unfortunately, horror stories abound focusing on children being abused and neglected in day cares all over the world. Fortunately, you can use this fact to your advantage by providing parents with proof that yours is a reputable operation. Get yourself background checked and display the results for all to see. There are many companies who provide this service for a small fee. Have an open door policy and promote it with gusto. Consider the expense of installing a CCTV and see your prospective parent's eyes light up with joy. The peace of mind from being able to see your little one on a daily basis is invaluable.

Taking some or all of the above mentioned steps will enhance your service exponentially in the eyes of new parents. Easing some of their apprehension and fear from the outset will begin the growth of the trust process so vital for people looking for day care. If you can put their minds at rest, even just a smidgeon, you will have the edge on your competition and could be looking at lots of new clients.

Find out about childcare from Fiona Lohrenz who has run her own day care for the past 10 years. She incorporates all that knowledge into her website and her 'Start a Day Care Business' DVD guide How To Start A Daycare. Find her at her Day
Care focused website.